It started yesterday morning in Germany....short news item.....classified BND (German CIA) report....identifying Erdogan's government in Turkey as having relationships with various pro-Islam groups throughout the Middle East. HAMAS, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, various groups in Syria, etc.
How long have they known this? Unknown. I'd take a guess that the report was probably written in the past six months, and mostly just sitting there.....no one wanting to really pick up the knowledge or act with it.
What does it all add up to? The crew within the inner circle of Erdogan's Turkey has possibly influenced various events to occur in several neighboring countries. If you were Egypt.....you might be fairly upset. If you were Syria.....you might be very angry. Iraq? Lebanon? Israel?
The document is said to be classified and wasn't meant for public consumption. No one says how it was received....probably some insider who just said 'enough' and gave a copy of the document to the state-run news people.
It puts Chancellor Merkel and the direction of German-Turkey relations into a fairly difficult spot. The ethical side of the German government has often often been displayed over the past two decades and generally....Germans expect the 'right' thing to be done. But in this case.....how do you handle Turkey in the future? If you were Syria.....you might be fairly upset. Turkey is a part of NATO but are openly inviting some type of retaliation. Would both the US and Germany provide military support in the future? Unknown.
In some ways, this report has opened up a door that should have been kept closed. You can't go into any meeting with Erdogan-appointees or talk agreements....without considering the fact that they have other motives involved.
For the rest of the week, I expect 'no comment' out of the Merkel office and some hope that the topic will be less of a public thing in a week. But eventually, someone is going to ask a direct question and Merkel will have to deliver a response.
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